Growing up in a Yorkshire mining village in the 1980s, Jamie’s route into classical music was somewhat unconventional. With only a few piano lessons and an adolescence spent busking show tunes behind him, he nevertheless followed his heart and found himself studying music at university where he discovered both his voice and a love of classical choral music.
Even before graduating in 2005, Jamie had established himself as a skilful ensemble singer and concert soloist, and it was in 2009 that he was appointed a full-time member of the BBC Singers, a role which he has combined successfully with a busy solo singing schedule for over a decade.
The COVID pandemic and subsequent lockdowns saw Jamie expand his art song repertoire, delivering a series of daily #BathrobeRecitals via Twitter – for which he was commended by the Royal Philharmonic Society – and founding the Proud Songsters, a group bringing live recitals of art song to new audiences via YouTube. The Proud Songsters project allowed Jamie to perform for the first time Schubert’s cycle Die Schöne Müllerin, which he went on to record on the Convivium label.
Latterly Jamie’s #BathrobeRecitalsAdventCalendar raised over £3000 for Help Musicians UK, and his various efforts were recognised at the inaugural Classical Music Digital Awards which named Jamie ‘Musician of the Year 2020’.
Solo highlights have included performing Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle at the Three Choirs Festival; Joseph Horovitz’ Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo with John Wilson and his orchestra; Bach’s St John Passion with Gareth Malone; Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols with The LPO, and Five Mystical Songs with the RPO; and singing the title role of Britten’s Noye’s Fludde alongside the legendary Michael Crawford, and conducted by Martyn Brabbins.